Composite image of the Crab Nebula using data from three of NASA's Great Observatories. - Source: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/F.Seward; Optical: NASA/ESA/ASU/J.Hester & A.Loll; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. Minn./R.Gehrz
The amazing picture of the 1054 supernova remnant above (1920×1080 version) is a composite of NASA’s three great space observatories: the Hubble Space Telescope (red and yellow), the Spitzer Space Telescope (purple) and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory (blue).
The X-ray image is smaller than the others because extremely energetic electrons emitting X-rays radiate away their energy more quickly than the lower-energy electrons emitting optical and infrared light. Along with many other telescopes, Chandra has repeatedly observed the Crab Nebula over the course of the mission’s lifetime. The Crab Nebula is one of the most studied objects in the sky, truly making it a cosmic icon.
You may have seen the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) photo before – it is a photo of a clear patch of sky that shows over 10,000 galaxies. It is often called the most important image ever taken because it allowed scientists to estimate that there are over a 100 billion to 1 trillion galaxies in the universe.
This view of nearly 10,000 galaxies is the deepest visible-light image of the cosmos. Called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, this galaxy-studded view represents a "deep" core sample of the universe, cutting across billions of light-years - Photo Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF Team
Earlier this month a 3D animation rendered using the measured redshift of all 10,000 galaxies in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field image hit YouTube:
Quite an impressive view, isn’t it? Well … here is another one (a tiny part of the huge image below). It is a rarely seen before image that is perhaps a hundred times larger (here’s a link to the BitTorrent of the image [180 MB]) than the HUDF and thus not widely circulated.
In a way, this view is more special because rather than a static photo, it actually is an interactive composite made using the OpenZoom technology, similar to Google Maps. You can pan the “map” using the arrows on your keyboard (or by dragging its parts with your mouse). +/- (or the wheel button) can be used to zoom in and out. Also, you can press ‘F’ to enter the full-screen mode and ‘H’ to return to the original view.
The author of this composite also made available a similar view of the Orion Nebula.
May 11, 2009 at 18:01:56 UT – NASA successfully launched the space shuttle Atlantis on the fifth and final service mission to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Due to an anomaly aboard the telescope that occurred on September 27, 2008, STS-125 was delayed until now to prepare a second data handling unit replacement for the telescope. Over 11 days and five spacewalks (EVA’s), the shuttle Atlantis’ crew will enhance the observatory and ensure its cutting-edge science by putting in place advanced technology that improves its discovery power by 10 to 70 times. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to follow this launch as closely as the launch of Discovery in March.
Discovery on pad 39A minutes before launch - Source: NASA TV
Discovery on pad 39A minutes before launch - Source: NASA TV
Countdown clock at 30:49 - 10:49 before the T-20 built-in hold - Source: NASA TV
Atlantis takes off in HD – Courtery of NASA TV Youtube Channel:
A few minutes after the liftoff, the crew executed a Orbiter Maneuvering System (OMS) burn to raise the shuttle’s orbit to reach Hubble’s 563-8km above the surface. The shuttle it now on its way to rendezvous with the space telescope on Wednesday. During the mission, the STS-125 crew aboard Atlantis will travel farther from the Earth than anyone since STS-109 in March 2002, which flew on Space Shuttle Columbia. The mission is scheduled to end on Friday, May 22, 2009 at 15:41 UT when the shuttle is supposed to land at the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy’s Space Center in Florida.
Follow the mission on NASA TV and don’t forget to subscribe to Astro_Mike‘s tweeps from space!
